


Breathless

by ReaderJane



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-28
Updated: 2010-08-28
Packaged: 2017-10-11 09:37:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/110962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReaderJane/pseuds/ReaderJane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spike doesn't need to breathe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breathless

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: BtVS Season 6  
> Written for the LJ community [sb_fag_ends](http://community.livejournal.com/sb_fag_ends/?skip=10)  
> Disclaimer: still not mine, alas

He doesn't need to breathe.

For talking, sure, and he seldom stops talking. Words still need to be shaped by lips, teeth, tongue and pushed past a larynx before anyone can hear them. Talk is talk, and his body doesn't forget how, for all it's dead.

But he doesn't need the oxygen. Can't drown, never suffocates no matter how long he's buried. _(Don't think of that small silken space beneath the ground.)_ He pants after fighting, but it's only the memory of a need. A different spirit animates his limbs now; foreign wind from a hostile world.

He forgets sometimes while they patrol. Intent on the hunt, he waits too long to inhale, until she feels she's choking. She imagines pushing him against the nearest wall and kissing him hard, a desperate CPR, pounding his chest to jump-start his heart.

It's why she doesn't object to the cigarettes, despite the stink that clings to him, the discarded ends that collect outside her door. When he's smoking, he breathes. They pace together along the dark streets, silent but for their footsteps and the steady draw of lungs.


End file.
